A useful meeting today I thought.  It was attended by quite a few police officers including the chief inspector for Oxford as well as county council community safety people, neighbourhood action group council officers, and nightsafe.

It appears that disorder in Cowley Road  area, particularly on student club mights is becoming a bit of a problem.  Lots of Brookes Students attend Fuzzy Ducks at the O2 on Wednesdays and tend to be a bit noisy walking around the area afterwards, particularly Divinity Road and Southfield Road.  I’m sure many of us have been there – being noisy late a night, not going to Fuzzy Ducks! It’s a problem though because it keeps the other residents of the streets around awake (remember students are residents too).

Thames Valley Police officers have been voluntarily working extra hours on Wednesdays to cover this but the Chief Inspector reminded us all that this is on a good will basis and she can’t easily or quickly force her officers to do this.

The need for joined-up working was  re-iterated and all agreed that there should be a central repository of information about problems around the Cowley Road area be they noise, licensing issues, crime or general antisocial behaviour.  I think all were in agreement.

City Council Licensing Officers and The Police plan to take members of the Divinity Road area Residents’ Association out with them as well as some Brookes senior staff so people can experience Cowley Road area first hand at busy times.  I suggested it would also be good to include students in this initiative as peers are often then best group to communicate with students, and indeed any group.

I hope this problem can be sorted out as it’s not fair on anyone who wants to sleep at night in East Oxford.  I firmly believe that students are a good thing for Oxford and vital to our economy but it is really important that all groups in the city, particularly busy and densely populated areas like East Oxford, understand each other’s needs and situations so that we can all get on with our own lives without disrupting others.  I am sure mutual understanding rather than penalising people is the way to move forward here.